The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
Mark Wilson ·
April 22, 2012 at 1:31pm
"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" asks Regina Dugan, former director of the US government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, who are some of the most forward-thinking people in the world. Just check out their list of projects.
In this talk Dugan explains how the fear of failure stifles innovation, and that we must learn to accept failure as the toll of progress. "Failure is part of creating new and amazing things. We cannot both fear failure and make amazing new things." By being willing to fail are able to amplify the impact of our successes.
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Comments:
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
Thanks for this, Mark. This is going to be my new motto whenever I check my bank balance. I'm not failing, I'm just creating new and amazing things.
Jan '11
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
If I knew that I couldn't fail I would go into investment banking and leverage all my assets at ratios of 50 to 1 or more. Wait a second.....
Jul '11
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
If I knew I couldn't fail I'd still be married to my first wife. I like it the other way. Personally I like the fear of failure, it has always driven me to succeed even though that does not always work. Failing means more work and at my core I've always felt too lazy to fail as well.
Edited on April 22, 2012 at 5:04pmMar '11
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
DARPA is often given as an example of why the government takes risks and can innovate.
But actually, DARPA is the exception that proves the rule. They fire everyone after 2-3 years, so nobody has any reason to NOT take a risk.
Mar '11
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
Mr. Blankfein!? When did you join Ricochet?
Sep '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
iWc: DARPA is often given as an example of why the government takes risks and can innovate.
But actually, DARPA is the exception that proves the rule. They fire everyone after 2-3 years, so nobody has any reason to NOT take a risk. · 1 hour ago
I wouldn't go that far. Ms. Dugan talks a good game but her time at DARPA tells a different story. Actions speak louder than words.
All those high-sounding words make for great TED talks. Actually living the words is quite something else. DARPA is a lot less bold and risk-taking that she'd like you to think. Don't get me started.
By the way, her narrative about the history of flight has some real problems. Maybe this is emblematic of the disease people catch in Washington to make the facts fit the story rather than the other way. By the way, apparently the quote attributed to Lord Kelvin is false.
The last few TED talks I've seen have been a real disappointment.
Aug '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
Look, I'm as much a fan of the famous Thomas Edison quote as the next engineer. But sometimes a failure is just a failure. Not every path contains the possibility of success.
The evidence left by successful people skews our perception of the true rewards available for the risks. Nassim Taleb's term for this is "silent evidence":
Claiming that "lack of fear" breeds success is absurd, until you also know if the failures also lacked fear.
Oct '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
The fact that failures hurt add an important ingredient to success. But fear of pain paralyses. The conservative believes that people learn from the pain of their failures. As the Apostle Paul said, "if a man will not work, he should not eat". Hunger is the teacher that leads man to work.
The point of Dr. Dugan's presentation is that people who are not afraid of failure are the people who accomplish great things. Regardless of @drlorentz's view of Darpa, of which I am far too uninformed to have an opinion, the truth of her presentation remains unaltered.
Aug '11
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
When someone attempts to reach a difficult goal, is it because failure is acknowledged and weighed against the possibility of success or because failure is unacknowledged and ignored? Therein lies the difference between a dream and a pipe dream. Dreaming requires maturity while pipe dreams belong to children.
Sep '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
....
The point of Dr. Dugan's presentation is that people who are not afraid of failure are the people who accomplish great things. Regardless of @drlorentz's view of Darpa, of which I am far too uninformed to have an opinion, the truth of her presentation remains unaltered. · 6 hours ago
The 'point' of her presentation is based on misrepresentations (that's the polite word for lies, right?). I thought that was relevant. How can you trust anything she says? Mostly, they are platitudes anyway.
Science is all about failing so you can learn. I don't need Ms. Dugan to tell me that, especially when she does not seem to truly understand it herself. To paraphrase another aphorism, scientific research is hours of frustration punctuated by moments of failure. The successes come few and far between. But, boy, are they great when they happen.
Sep '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
BlueAnt
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Claiming that "lack of fear" breeds success is absurd, until you also know if the failuresalso lacked fear. · 7 hours ago
I agree. This point bears repeating. The realization that there's more to success than 'lack of fear' is the difference between platitudes uttered by a bureaucrat and the understanding of those schooled in the art.
BlueAnt nailed it.
May '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
drlorentz
All those high-sounding words make for great TED talks. Actually living the words is quite something else. DARPA is a lot less bold and risk-taking that she'd like you to think. Don't get me started.
Please do get started. I'm interested to hear your opinion, since you seem to have something to say about it.
May '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
BlueAnt
The evidence left by successful people skews our perception of the true rewards available for the risks. Nassim Taleb's term for this is "silent evidence":
Claiming that "lack of fear" breeds success is absurd, until you also know if the failuresalso lacked fear. · 9 hours ago
The difference between unpublished writing and engineering failures is that the latter are documented, analyzed, and used as the basis for the next design iteration.
May '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
drlorentz
To paraphrase another aphorism, scientific research is hours of frustration punctuated by moments of failure. The successes come few and far between. But, boy, are they great when they happen. · 2 hours ago
So is your criticism that she's telling you what you already know? Or do you actually disagree with what she's saying? I can't tell from your comment.
I don't really find this to be in conflict with the talk. She emphasized the enormous number of failures they experienced in the development of their new technologies, and how the ability to persist through failure is what enabled great breakthroughs as opposed to just incremental advancements.
Aug '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
I didn't have room in 200 words to be more specific, but yes, my ranting was aimed at the bureaucrats who mistake intentions for progress. You could say the core conservative complaint about big government, is that bureaucrats never learn from their failed programs. They keep on going, "without fear of failure", in the certain belief that success is just around the corner.
It's a dubious strategy in the real world. Stick 50 engineers in a building, guarantee their jobs and salary to eliminate "fear of failure", and they might produce an iPod. But they're just as likely to produce a Sony MiniDisc player. (If you played with one back in the 90's, you saw the engineering appeal... and also why no one else wanted to play with one.)
"Don't fear failure", in the mouth of a bureaucrat, is another way of saying "stop questioning our track record; you should really just fund us forever, in the blind belief that we're accomplishing something".
Sep '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
Mark Wilson
drlorentz
To paraphrase another aphorism, scientific research is hours of frustration punctuated by moments of failure. The successes come few and far between. But, boy, are they great when they happen. · 2 hours ago
So is your criticism that she's telling you what you already know? Or do you actually disagree with what she's saying? I can't tell from your comment.
Sorry if it was unclear. Please see my other posts, above, and BlueAnt's to which I made reference. Re-read that one.
Points you may wish to consider:
1. Dugan is mostly spouting platitudes: motherhood and apple pie. Lord Kelvin said man would never fly - what a fool. Too bad it's not true.
2. She's putting forward a vision of DARPA that is quite different from the reality. Her talk is about DARPA, not research in general. In recent years, the agency has tied itself ever closer to short-term goals and applications. There may be exceptions, ones that prove the rule. DARPA has become more risk averse. It's not just me saying this.
3. More broadly, her talk is not honest. And I always disagree with dishonesty.
Sep '10
Re: The History of Innovation: Refuse to Fear Failure
Thanks for posting this, Mark. I found the talk both interesting and relevant (likely because I'm always fighting self-defeating internal voices whenever I try to write creatively). But I can see where the talk's message might be more helpful/useful to an insecure nerd than to someone with more self-confidence, as drlorentz above. Any thoughts on that?